We're getting a bit of light hail this morning, as the storms that have rocked
the Midwest head our way. Things are fine for now, and the forecast calls for
mild temperatures tomorrow, so it seems we're going to get a de-fanged version
of this nasty bit of weather.

Fuck them. My entire area was without power because some cunt farmer 2 miles down the road had like 50 fucking trees on his land that fell on the feed line.

It is all about the $$$$$.

Here in MPLS - the city used to send out a crew for FREE to trim back your trees from your powerline.....but because of the Homeland Security group, and the mass dollars sucked from the states/cities back to the federal level, it was one of the programs that was cut. (no pun intended)

I have a huge ass tree in my back yard, and the powerline to my house goes right through it - I trim it when I can, but I also try and stay away from it. Yeah, it would get taken out if there was a really bad storm, but that would be the least of my worries - the sheer size of the trees around my house would crush my house and 3 houses on each side. heh.

It is a private service, provided to you for a fee, with no guarantee of it ever working.

Power has also become a primary necessity of life, and the power companies DELIBERATELY refuse to harden their infrastructure against yearly events. I'm pretty sure there's something there to challenge. If only to FORCE the power companies to start putting their shit underground.

Btw, any people who refuse to trim their damn trees, or who go so far as to SUE the power company when THEY try to trim those trees, should go to the bottom of the fucking list. "We'll have your power back on by June 30th or thereabouts."

Fuck them. My entire area was without power because some cunt farmer 2 miles down the road had like 50 fucking trees on his land that fell on the feed line.

But I would rather the money being invested in solar panels on the roof's of all houses

That's actually one thing that really wouldn't work in large parts of the US because of the severity of the hail storms around here.

My buddy in spain has a huge wind mill plus solar panels to generate power, because he lives in an area where the power company simply DOESN'T GO. (one street further down the road they have power...)

And according to him those solar panels are pretty fragile.

With the 2 inch thick hail we get here every year, that'd be about 99 billion broken solar panels.

I hope that as they start to add new stuff and improve the grid, it will all be underground.

In a rare few neighborhoods, the stuff is underground. But then their feed line is the same above ground crappy pole and crappy wires bullshit. Which then breaks, so the entire neighborhood is still without power.

the power grid is already a mess and needs a rebuilding

Yeah well, the fucking power companies are NEVER going to do that. I work for one of the biggest ones (AEP). They have absolutely no plans whatsoever to do that.

Ofcourse, it's because of the stupid tax system. 200 million dollars a year in repairs are business expenses, and are fully tax deductable. If they were to invest that money in new infrastructure, it becomes a fifteen year writeoff.

The first thing the gov. would have to do is make it so the power companies can write off investments in infrastructure all at once.

And even then, the power company will still completely pass the costs on to its customers. Which is something I find bullshit too.

You make 400 million bucks or so a year in gross profits. But if you then need to build a new powerplant so you can serve MORE customers, your existing customers have to pay the cost for that?? What the fuck? Whatever happened to the idea of investing your own profits?

That's fucking ridiculous. This country needs to wake the fuck up, step out of the 1930s, and put these fucking powerlines underground.

Not really. I mean, sure, I got no problem with that. But I would rather the money being invested in solar panels on the roof's of all houses. And with the excess power in the day, first use it to generate hydrogen to power a fuel cell for power at night, before sending the excess back to the power company. And if we are not going to do that (actually, even if we do, do that), the power grid is already a mess and needs a rebuilding. I hope that as they start to add new stuff and improve the grid, it will all be underground.

Son of a bitch. I was without power for five fucking days. 190,000 poor sods are still without power. Most of them are told they'll be back on by midnight next tuesday, but according to a friend of ours, in a particular part of town the power company has started hanging notices on doors that they might be without power until December 31st.

That's fucking ridiculous. This country needs to wake the fuck up, step out of the 1930s, and put these fucking powerlines underground.

Yes, it will take 20 years and cost 50 billion dollars.

Repairing all the shit every year for 200 million isn't such a great option either.

I'm surprised this shit hasn't turned into a massive lawsuit yet. Being left without power for a month is fucking insane. What is this, Zambia?

It started snowing about 2 hours earlier than predicted in Providence, so at about 2 I figured I'd head home and continue working from home. What is normally a 20 minute commute ended up being nearly 3 hours. It turns our I decided to go a slightly different way figuring the traffic flow would be lighter than my usual, shorter way (as is typically). After 2+ hours I finally got to a connecting street (after staring at the light go green yellow red for over an hour), cut across and reconnected with my normal route. Wouldn't you know I was home less than 10 minutes later, and traffic was lighter on my usual route than it is under good conditions. Ugh. Next time I'll just work from home from the start (like everyone else did).

One interesting local tidbit in here - the 1140am sports radio station has F.P. Santangelo as one of the morning hosts (part of the Rise Guys). F.P. said on the show how he never did drugs, etc. He took today off. He's in the report. Curious, no? I wonder when he'll return and what he'll have to say about that.....

Edit - Just heard he is going to be on the 1140 am 4pm show (Sportsline) in a few minutes to talk about it. Should be interesting.

Now these points of data make a beautiful lineAnd we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on timeSo I’m GLaD I got burned, think of all the things we learnedFor the people who are still alive

This comment was edited on Dec 13, 19:16.

Have I lied to you? I mean, in this room? Trust me, leave that thing alone. - GLaDOS

Same here in Western Massachusetts. Good thing I have some sick time left to burn up before the end of the year, as I'm sure as hell not going to work in this crap.

I also highly recommend that people visit a local CompUSA if there's one nearby, they have some damn good deals going on. I picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD465 headphones for $30 ($50 from newegg). These things rock too. I didn't realize it, but from the sound difference I must have blown out my old headphones. Oops.